Stem cell research and the value of life

Re “Researchers use stem cells to rein in Type 1 diabetes,” April 11

The article highlights the potential of stem cells to treat Type 1 diabetes, but neglects to highlight the fact that this hope is found in adult stem cells, not embryonic ones.

The stem cells used in this treatment were harvested from the patients’ own bodies -- not ripped from tiny embryos. This experiment confirms again the promise of treatments and cures lies in adult stem cell research. To date, adult stem cells have been used to treat more than 70 diseases and conditions.

With the Senate’s vote to expand federal funding for destructive embryonic stem cell research, the public has the right to know we can pursue ethical treatments without sacrificing young humans on the altar of science. Our country should fund what has already proven effective -- adult stem cell research.

CARRIE GORDON EARLL

Senior Bioethics Analyst

Focus on the Family Action

Colorado Springs, Colo.

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Re “A chance to change,” editorial, April 12

The Times’ editorial board attempts to use science to justify research on human beings. Let’s be very clear: All of us were once embryos. The fact that we happened to rest in our mother’s womb, rather than a petri dish, is irrelevant. Both embryos are very much human; the difference is the sophistry perpetuated by the pro-embryonic research community. Here, we have man deciding what human life is worth protecting and what human life is worth destroying.

Religion is really secondary to the real issue: the barbaric thinking of those who place it on themselves to determine which human life should live and which should die.

ANDREW DECKER

San Gabriel